2013 NLADA Annual Conference

Event Description

Early Registration Rate Extended until October 11th, 2013

NLADA’s Annual Conference is the leading national training event of the year for the civil legal aid, indigent defense, and public interest law communities. The conference offers advocates the latest substantive information and professional skills they need to creatively and effectively meet the legal needs of low-income people, and provides unparalleled opportunities to meet and exchange ideas with colleagues from across the country while fulfilling continuing legal education requirements. This year’s conference theme is: “Justice in America: Delivering on the Promise."

Session Themes

Civil - Putting People First: Strategic Alliances for Justice
A forum for legal aid leaders to share the “hows,” “whys,” and benefits of working in partnerships to more easily identify gaps in services, unaddressed needs and growing trends that affect our ability to provide services to our clients. Creative and atypical collaborations can attract greater and diversified funding as many of the traditional sources of funding for civil legal aid have been reduced and/or allocated differently. Legal aid programs MUST partner with other organizations for the ultimate goal of serving the client community more effectively.

Defender - Gideon and Beyond: Client- and Community-Driven Strategic Reform to Ensure the Future of Defense Excellence
Defenders have for decades toiled to protect the liberty of individuals from diverse communities and backgrounds, without ever having adequate funding or structure. Such inadequacies have perpetuated a lack of trust between individuals and defenders, despite the best intentions. The concerns of our client’s, those whose expressed interests are to guide our representation, can be lost in the problems associated with service delivery. We must not shy away from these challenges, but work towards synergistic solutions that address both policy matters outside the courtroom, as well as gaining the trust and support of the communities we strive to serve. This year’s Defender sessions will re-examine our role through this lens, and focus on outcomes that improve the delivery of representation – moving beyond the minimal requirements of representation to meaningful levels of excellence.

Joint - Changing the Narrative: Civil/Defender Partnerships to Advance the Rights of People, Families and Communities
There are many ways that NLADA’s members – civil legal aid law firms, civil rights organizations, indigent defense offices, public policy advocates, pro bono programs and attorneys, Access to Justice Commissions, and individual attorneys fighting for justice for their clients – work to “change the narrative.” They do so through the representation of their clients’ interests, in court cases, before administrative agencies, in the media and beyond. They do so through advocacy to reform systemic barriers, injustices, mistakes and erroneous decision-making in order to protect whole groups of people who are or would be affected by these systemic problems. They do so by educating community members, elected officials, agency leaders and staff, and law enforcement and judicial officers. They do so by being tireless champions for people who are often rendered voiceless and invisible. The joint track is designed to provide discussion opportunities around how we can work in partnership to change the narrative of poverty.

Client - Leading From Your Strengths
Clients play a critical role in identifying, cultivating and maintaining community-based partnership and connecting legal services providers with the needs and dreams of low-income communities. This year’s Client Track will focus on the leadership and resources, clients and community advocates bring to bear on the challenges and opportunities facing their communities.

Board Leadership - Expanding Your Impact
Members of the board of directors of public interest legal organizations bring many resources to the organization. One of those resources is relationships beyond legal services and law firms. This year’s Board Track will focus on the Board role in expanding connections with foundations, governmental agencies, universities, researchers, community-based organizations and other potential partners for the purpose of advancing the legal services mission.

Fundraising - Philanthropy and Legal Aid: Natural Allies
An astonishing 80 percent of the legal needs of low-income people are unmet today because of insufficient funding and support. Some 60 million people are eligible for Legal Services Corporationfunded legal aid programs and yet, only one million clients are served. As the number of those who are at or near the poverty level increases, funding per client has dropped by almost 60 percent in the past two decades.
Investing in help for low-income people to solve their legal problems is smart. Legal aid groups have been a powerful force for real change in millions of lives. When families need housing, food and health care, answers are provided by legal aid lawyers. Funders who understand this connection and see legal aid as a powerful tool are ready to support programs and see their contributions leverage dollars.

In addition, sessions about communications, risk management, technology, and evidence-based practices will be offered.

NLADA's Annual Conference Awards ceremony provides an opportunity to acknowledge exemplary work in the field. We invite you to nominate outstanding advocates who are working on behalf of Legal Aid and Indigent Defense Communities. Nominations are now open for the following awards:

Emery A. Brownell Award

The Emery A. Brownell Award, awarded biennially, gives national recognition to newspapers, magazines, filmmakers, and television and radio stations that have informed the public about the crucial role played by civil legal aid or defender organizations in ensuring equal justice for those who cannot afford counsel. This award commemorates Emery Brownell, who was NLADA’s executive director from 1940 until his death in 1961.

Charles Dorsey Award

The Charles Dorsey Award, given biennially, honors an individual who has provided extraordinary and dedicated service to the equal justice community and to organizations that promote expanding and improving access to justice for low-income people. The award celebrates the accomplishments of the longtime executive director of the Legal Aid Bureau of Maryland whose many national leadership roles included service as chair of the Project Advisory Group and as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants.

Mary Ellen Hamilton Award

The Mary Ellen Hamilton Award, given biennially, honors a legal services client or low-income community leader who, on a compensated or volunteer basis, has provided extraordinary service or support to the delivery of legal assistance to low-income people. The award commemorates one of the founders of the National Clients Council and the Alliance for Legal Rights, who served on NLADA’s Board of Directors and remained an active Alliance member until her death in 1985.

New Leaders in Advocacy Award

The New Leaders in Advocacy Award, created to be given annually, honors the accomplishments of rising attorneys who early in their careers as civil legal aid or indigent defense advocates are exhibiting extraordinary leadership.

Reginald Heber Smith Award

The Reginald Heber Smith Award, given annually, recognizes the dedicated services and outstanding achievements of a civil legal aid attorney or an indigent defense attorney while employed by an organization supporting such services. The “Reggie” is named for a former counsel at the Boston Legal Aid Society and the author of Justice and the Poor, published by the Carnegie Foundation in 1919.

Clara Shortridge Foltz Award

The Clara Shortridge Foltz Award, given biennially, commends a public defender program or public defense delivery system for outstanding achievement in the provision of services to indigent defendants. The award, co-sponsored by NLADA and the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants is named for the founder of the nation’s public defender system.

Announcement letters will be mailed on or before Monday, September 30, 2013. Winners will be recognized at NLADA’s
Annual Conference Awards Luncheon in Los Angeles, CA, Friday, November 8, 2013. Please visit our Web site, http://www.nlada.org/About/About_Awards for a list of past award winners.

Ensuring Access for All: Strategies for the Successful Passage and Implementation of Local Language Access Laws

Shena Elrington, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest; Jennifer Swayne, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest; Emily Tucker, Center for Popular Democracy; Sotivear Sim, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

The Economic Impacts of Family Law: How Preventing Domestic Violence and Promoting Economic Independence Benefit the Entire Community

Kelly Thayer, The Resource for Great Programs; Ken Smith, The Resource for Great Programs; Bonnie Hough, Center for Families, Children & the Courts, California Administrative Office of the Courts; Kris Cirby, Family & Children's Law Center

Partnering with Community Groups and Organizers in Social Justice Lawyering

Approaching Juvenile Delinquency Through a Public Health Lens - A Collaboration Between Legal Aid, Public Defenders, and the Courts

Jessica Breslin; Barbara Dickinson; Judge Leo Dorado

Technology Innovations to Increase Access to Justice in Suburban and Rural Communities

Mirenda Watkins

Saturday, November 9th

Time

Event

7:30 - 8:30am

Breakfast

8:30 - 10:00am

Sessions:

The Difference We Make: Statistics and Studies About the Delivery of Legal Services

Jeff Hogue, Legal Assistance of Western New York; Ken Perri, Legal Assistance of Western New York; Bonnie Hough, Center for Families, Children & the Courts, California Administrative Office of the Courts;

Community Lawyering and Community Benefits Agreements: Who is the community, who is your client, and what is at stake?